For my last blog entry in this year, I will be talking about how religion shapes our morality, as I’m trying to find an answer that is kind of not my own point of view, I interviewed 5 people from my school that represent 5 religious point of views: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hindu and Atheism. The questions were as follow:

1. What is your religion or your religious point of view?
2. Does your religious point of view commit you with specific virtues?
3. Do you think your virtues would change if you have a different religious point of view?
4. As a person, do you believe in these virtues? Do you think you will give up on them of you changed your religious point of view?

My first interviewee was a Christian girls, her answer was ” Yes, in Christianity I’m not suppose to cause harm, to respect my elders and listen to my parents, to neither lie nor robe someone. I’m not sure if my religious point of view was different will change my virtues as Christianity is the only religion I know very well, but I don’t think it will differ very much because even when my religion require me to follow these virtues but I still believe in them as a person so even  If I left Christianity I’ll still won’t lie, I’ll still respect others etc. “

My second interviewee was a Muslim boy, his answer was ” Yes, In Islam we have a lot of virtues, the whole religion is kind of based on them, not lying, not stealing, not harming anyone, respect others and take care of the environment, and I was raised on these things since I was a little kid. For me one of the biggest reasons that make me trying my best to follow strictly them is the fact that God is watching and he knows what I’m doing even when no human can see me so I try my best to avoid doing wrong things especially when we believe that there’s a day of judgement in the end and everyone will be punished for what they did wrong in life. I will still follow these virtues even If I left Islam as it’s kind of international virtues and I personally strongly believe in them, but will I be as afraid of not doing them even what I think is small as before, I don’t know, human souls can trick you sometimes.”

The rest of my interviewees point of view didn’t differ that much change, as they all think that their religious point of you shaped them somehow, and most of the religions ask for quiet the same virtues, as there is no religion will ask for lying, harming or disrespecting anyone, and any good human will believe the same wherever they are religious or not, but the question will stay, what will always remind them to keep following it as all humans can do mistakes and it’s impossible to be perfect without mistakes? Maybe that’s what religions are trying to help with.

To conclude, religion can shapes our molars as each religion has their own morals and ways to grow it in their followers, some religions has punishments for those who break them during their life, some use the way of that “God sees you and will punish you in the day of judgement”, some use the way of “Treat others as you love to be treated” , but everything still can be relative, you can be an atheist who doesn’t believe in God and the day of judgement, but you will still be a good human and vice versa. We don’t know anything for sure, it all depends on what there is in your heart and how much you have self control, to not believe in something, but to actually follow it.    

I met the Cabecares!!

Before knowing that i will be living in Costa Rica for the next two years, I’ve never dreamed or wished to visit it, i admit that i was an idiot for being sad to be nominated to UWC Costa Rica particularly. After around 5 months here, i thank God for getting this chance to be here! I know you want to know why my lovely reader. I’m happy to say that last week me and other 15 students from my school got the chance to do community service for indigenous people! which are the Cabecares! 

To reach them  we  had  to  hike  for  two  hours  in  the  mountain!  it sounds a lot and it actually was, but after reaching the place and meeting them we forgot everything we went through and will go through, meeting  these people was magical!. The Cabecares are one of the biggest indigenous people population in Costa Rica, There are around 10’000 Cabecares, who still preserve their language, natural medicine and patrimonial culture (caciques are allowed to marry several women). They have a rich corpus of stories and legends, some of which are written down in Spanish and the Cabécar language, you can find them in Southern Atlantic Coast, Limón province, Chirripó (Pacuare valley), valley of the Rio Estrella and the Talamanca reserve. Ujarrás de Buenos Aires and China Kichá. Cabecares is probably the indigenous group with the most distinct cultural identity. The original Cabécar language is still spoken next to Spanish. The Cabécares have retained many of their customs and traditions and clan ties are still very tight. They do agriculture (coffee, cocoa and bananas), bird hunting and fishing for living.

It was such an honor to meet people who are able to balance between protecting their own language, culture and life habits, while at the same time they took from outer life and cultures what they believe is going to help them (like electricity and cellphones for calling). They only have one school (which is a big wood room) with one teacher for all ages, they are learning Spanish beside their own language so they won’t lose their connections between other Costa Rican who only speak Spanish, at the same time they don’t do special celebration for weddings for example as they think it’s additional things which there’s no need for and it’s only a wast of money, so they are smart enough to know what they have to change and what not (They love soccer very much by the way!!). I always wondered if there is people who will be able to protect their culture without getting affected too much by other cultures and what i saw was an evidence that there is still people will be able to balance and be happy! Their welcoming vibes and their kind nature really gave me hope in this world, a hope in people who accept others and their thoughts and respect it, without also feeling the pressure to change what they love to catch what we call the “21st century life”. That’s why what we did for them in the past 4 days even when it’s not a huge thing, but it made us forget all the hard conditions we are working in, and just keep working hard appreciating everything.

And now i will leave you with some amazing pictures from my adventure!

Thank you so much for reading!

Knowledge, this word has always made me think, when can I say that I have knowledge about something? How do we know that we know? How did we know? I know that these questions seem silly but yeah they drove me crazy, what we think we know is true, will it be constant and stable?

So many years before people claimed that they know something, scientists either, but they have improved how we view and interpret the world around us specifically scientists who have come a long way in developing how we look at the world as it stands today and as it stood yesterday. It took scientists a long time to formalize natural science as an area of knowledge and they are still improving their methods at this moment. By using the scientific method and revising history, humans have been able to update our knowledge base and discard what is false. Pluto is not a planet anymore, the Earth is round, the moon is not made of cheese and many other thoughts.

Natural sciences played a major role to show how what we always believed that it’s the absolute right thing, is now wrong and we found what it’s even more accurate. For example, people has thought that the earth is in the center of the world and everything around us is spinning around us, this false fact had always fill the glory of humans, the glory of that they are the most important creatures in the universe. Galileo then came with a new claim, the real truth, the truth that caused him a lot of troubles, after he knew that the earth is not in the center of the universe and not everything spin around it, and in fact all planets in our solar system spin around the sun. Now we know that nothing special about us, but we are in fact nothing, just insignificant creatures in this huge universe, and this fact pissed a lot of religious people off at that time as its oppose the church teachings. It showed how searching for the accurate knowledge could cause fear for many people as they do not want to taste the feeling of being wrong. Many other examples happened before showed that it does not matter how much you think something is right, uncertainties should not be ignored. As knowledge is something uncertain, but relative on many conditions and may completely differ from a time to another, who knows we may reach the time where everything we claim as a “Knowledge” collapse and destroy this concept. We know now a lot of things, but how much it is going to be stable? Nobody knows, let’s wait for the future recesses, folks.

Interested or came here by accident, Welcome!!

“Remember to look up at the stars, not down at your feet, and however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up” – Stephen Hawking

I hope you will love it!